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Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Blood in the streets

Hi all, bit of a manic week this week so apologies for not updating my painting progress. I've got two battle reports for you though from the opening games of the fight for shining falls necromunda campaign.

The first was the shoot out scenario I posted last week, and the second game was the scavengers scenario from the main rulebook.

The first game was originally intended to have five gangs taking part, though that ended up as three (I think the other two decided not to leave the bar, in fact I think that bar fight should be the scenario they play next as penance!)

I definitely got lucky, as the building I set up with was located at the far end of the street from the other two, who faced off opposite each other. The build up took longer than I expected, with all of us rolling sixes at some point so by the time the salvage snakes (Delaque) finally snapped, they were toe to toe with the goliaths. All three gangs started blazing away, with the snakes doing little damage (actually, they missed a lot considering they were so close to their targets). The 78th street smash mob managed to score a few wounds as my Orlocks let rip from afar - both my heavy stubber and a lasgun running out of ammo! At least the shots counted however, with Crank scoring a wounding hit and Vulture’s heavy stubber wounding two of the goliaths.

By the end of the fast draw phase both opposition gangs were looking a bit worse for wear, as you might expect following a close range shootout like that.

Salvage Snakes had two of their six members down and the 78th Street Smash Mob were also down by two fighters, with only their heavy and a shotgun ganger not lying on the floor at the end of the phase. Dr Hesse of the Smash Mob then proceeded to down the Salvage Snake’s leader, before being in turn wounded by Cillian in a revenge hit, which resulted in the Goliaths bottling out of the fight. Dag of the Salvage Snakes put my leader, Boone, out of action with a long range shot through some heavy cover before Butcher pulled off a similarly tricky long range shot with his autopistol to wound Borris and force the Snakes to bottle out.

Victory to the Death Spectres! I’ll admit though, that it was definitely heavily down to my starting well out of the way of the mass firefight in the centre of the board allowing me to watch as my opponents shot each other at point blank range and then mop up the remainder. I was also pleased that I managed to get my poor ammo rolls out of the way in a game where I didn’t need to do much shooting, which definitely paid off in the second game of the night as I didn’t fail a single roll then.

The second game we played therefore was the scavengers scenario, with loot counters in the centre of the board giving anyone who could collect them extra income at the end of the game. We used our full gangs in this scenario too, so in total there were 36 gang members involved (both the Salvage Snakes and the Death Spectres having gained a model from their settlements). We set up in the same basic locations as before simply to save everyone moving around, which meant that once more the Death Spectres were defending the Brewery Tap building – apt given that one of their number used to run it!

My number was definitely up in this game however, the 78th Street Smash Mob clearly holding a grudge from the previous game where I shot them in the back quite a bit, and they completely ignored the Salvage Snakes, working their way towards my position keeping in cover where possible. The Salvage Snakes themselves kept the truce on the whole, taking the view that of the two gangs facing them, only one was trying to shoot them so they’d focus their fire on that gang. My new Juve (temporarily called Stumpy) went down early, eventually going OOA as he rolled around bleeding out, ending up with a leg wound. Three juves from the Salvage Snakes got a bit careless with their positioning then, ending up close enough for Junkyard, my heavy, to cause some hurt, so I walked into range and let rip with his flamer, hitting all three dead centre. And then I rolled two ‘1’s and a 2 to wound, failing to hurt any of them! Fortunately for me, two of them caught fire, both eventually taking a wound (we decided that we’d use a house rule whereby if anyone who is set on fire is subsequently wounded by the flames, the original firer gains the experience points for a wounding hit). Sadly that still left one guy, who proceeded to charge in and put Junkyard out of action.

Fighting on two fronts, Hawg decided enough was enough, and over the next couple of turns he put down two of the Salvage Snakes number before being taken down himself by Chuck as I bottled. In the meantime, Howard of the Smash Mob wounded Weasel, one of the Death Spectres Juves. Crank, who’d got a BS increase after the previous game, shot down another of the Snakes’ juves who was foolishly running out in the open to claim a loot counter, though Brew and Rebel couldn’t do the same to his companion. Boone then gained a measure of revenge on the Smash mob by shooting down Hercules, who was acting as bodyguard for the flamer toting heavy who’d let rip too soon and failed to hit my leader, making sure of the kill by switching his plasma pistol to the highest power setting. The Goliaths had the last word however, Quaid wounding my last Juve, Maggot, which saw me bottle out and leave the fight.

So the truce was over, and a very one-sided affair ensued, the Salvage Snakes were already taking bottle tests thanks to the casualties I’d caused, and the Smash Mob had worked a considerable number of gangers into the Snakes lair. Dutch took down the Snakes leader, The Salvage King, and both Ed and Burnout were taken down by Trench and Dr Hesse respectively. The Snakes slithered away, leaving the Smash Mob in control of the field and most of the loot counters. There was one success story for the Snakes though, their newly recruited Juve (now christened Gump) had run out into the open centre of the table, retrieved a loot counter and made it off the board, being shot three times, all of which failed to wound, escaping being pinned on every occasion whilst keeping hold of that loot counter to add 25 creds to the Snakes income after the game.

When the dust settled, my gang had recruited another juve from its two settlement territories, and Junkyard has picked up a gammy leg, slowing him down. Vulture, despite wielding his heavy stubber magnificently gained an extra attack and point of strength, Crank and Hawg are both now BS4, though Hawg suffers from an Old Battle Wound (ok, so I need to get another shotgun guy!) but at least it’s only a 1 in 6 chance of him not turning up to a battle.

Other increases result in Boone and Crank increasing their leadership, Boone gaining a set of flak armour and a blindsnake pouch. Crank is also now BS4 and WS4, whilst Butcher is now Toughness 4 and has 2 Wounds (he’s close combat equipped, so I was dead chuffed with this!). Vulture now has S4 and 2 Attacks, so I need to seriously consider turning him into a close combat guy (I’ll probably leave him as he is for now, then re-equip him when I get some more cash). Hawg gained a point of BS from the first game and his heroics in the second game see him go up to Toughness 4 as well – that old battle wound must have resulted in a lot of tougher scar tissue! Brew was my only other model to gain an increase, also becoming BS4 (very pleased indeed, two games in and three gangers with BS increases, all of them armed for shooting). None of my juves turned up to the first game, so missed out on the greater experience available in that scenario sadly, but weasel and stumpy are well poised for increases next time.

So there you have it, the opening salvos have been fired in the fight for Shining Falls, and we’re now waiting for the real meat of the tussle to begin.